BC Provincial election 2026
across BC will head to the polls to decide the future of our province. Voters deserve a trusted, reliable source to inform their decision at the ballot box. Welcome to BC Policy Solutions’ election hub.
Explore issues:
Why this election matters
The provincial government holds many of the levers that shape daily life in BC. The promises made during this short campaign cycle will affect our lives for years to come. Understanding what’s at stake helps you vote with confidence and hold the government accountable long after election day.
Our role at BC Policy Solutions
How we approached this analysis. We have focused on the issues voters say they care about most and the ones missing from the public radar. We tackle some common myths and offer long-term, research-backed policy solutions to make BC healthy, stable and resilient through the uncertain times ahead.
While election campaigns can sometimes pit one group’s needs against another’s, our research shows that’s a false choice: BC will be better off when we tackle the common causes at the root of these different issues. When we support Indigenous sovereignty, racial justice and equity-driven policies, we’re strengthening the economy for everyone.
BC can afford to meet everyone’s needs, and on October 24 your vote will help choose the government responsible for doing so. Find voter information at ElectionsBC and explore key issues below.
Thank you for caring about the future of our province.
Tap to view issues:
Issue: Affordability
Our analysis
A third of workers in BC don’t earn enough to make ends meet.
Everyone is feeling pressure from the rising cost of living as housing, groceries, gas, childcare and other bills keep going up. A third of workers in BC don’t earn enough to make ends meet, and face impossible choices: buying groceries or heating their homes, paying bills or making rent on time. Last year, BC food banks reported a 79% increase in visits since 2019, including a shocking rise among people who are employed. The affordability crisis will only worsen as the trade war with the United States continues and the ongoing conflict in Iran keeps driving up the cost of transportation and food.
The next BC government must invest in public services that can reduce the cost of living. Affordable and reliable transit, $10-a-day child care, accessible education and skills training will all leave more money in people’s pockets, while creating family-supporting jobs. Urgent action is also needed to tackle the housing crisis (see the housing section below) and address growing food insecurity so all people in BC have their basic needs met.
What we’d like to see
- Develop an affordable food strategy that invests in local food systems, school food programs and fair access to food in every community.
- Recommit to a universal $10-a-day child care system.
- Make transit free for youth 18 and under, introduce a low-income transit pass and build a province-wide public transit network.
- Close the gap between the minimum wage and the living wage.
- Strengthen our income support system by indexing all income-tested benefits to inflation, including the BC Family Benefit, the BC renter’s tax credit and the BC Seniors’ Supplement.
Backgrounders
Recent publications with analysis on BC’s affordability crisis.
IN THE MEDIA
Vancouver Sun | How B.C. parties will tackle affordability, voters’ top election issue (Iglika Ivanova). Read here.
MSN | BC raises minimum wage, but it’s still not enough according to economists (BC Policy Solutions, Living Wage BC). View here.
Daily Hive | Here’s how B.C.’s average wage stacks up against the rest of Canada (BC Policy Solutions, Living Wage BC). View here.
Issue: Primary care
Our analysis
Health care is the BC government’s largest public expense.
Yet too many people in BC still can’t find a family doctor or nurse practitioner, leaving walk-in clinics and emergency rooms to pick up the slack. At the same time, more people are living with multiple chronic conditions that need ongoing, coordinated care.
The next party to form government should look at not-for-profit, team-based models which have a proven track record of solving these issues. They deliver better chronic disease management and prevention and save money by keeping people out of emergency rooms and hospitals. If the next government doesn’t scale these up, wait times will keep growing, hospitals will stay overloaded and the door to for-profit, two-tier care will open wider.
What we’d like to see
- Make not-for-profit team-based care the standard for primary care delivery and scale it up across BC.
- Develop flexible funding and pay models (including salaried options) that support multidisciplinary teams of nurses, counsellors and other professionals.
- Help nurses work to their full scope by expanding initiatives like the Nurse-in-Practice program.
- Integrate a system of continuous improvement into primary care with shared data and the highest standards of care.
- Protect public health care from privatization and two-tier care.
Backgrounders
Recent publications with analysis on BC’s approach to primary care.
Issue: Jobs
Our analysis
BC’s economy runs on workers’ earnings.
When people make more money, they spend it in their communities and bolster the local economy. Yet too many BC workers earn less than a living wage and too few have the bargaining power to fix that.
A business model that depends on poverty wages isn’t a success story, it’s actually a public subsidy. When employers underpay, misclassify or exploit workers, the costs are passed onto workers and the public, and responsible businesses get undercut. When the most exploited workers have no protection, the floor drops for everyone. But pitting workers against each other only hides where the money is going: to corporate profits and the very wealthy.
The next government can end this race to the bottom by enabling sectoral bargaining, encouraging workers’ co-ops, protecting workers regardless of status and enforcing the protections already on the books. Raising the floor for the most exploited workers raises it for everyone and puts more money back into our local economy.
What we’d like to see
- Close the gap between workers’ earnings and the cost of living by increasing the minimum wage and investing in public services.
- Update the Labour Relations Code so that workers can bargain across whole industries, known as sectoral bargaining.
- Help workers own their workplaces through co-op financing and a right of first refusal when a business is sold or closes.
- Protect migrant workers with proactive workplace safety inspections that don’t wait for a complaint, decent housing, access to healthcare, and the right to full protection under employment standards.
- Fund the Employment Standards Branch and the BC Human Rights Tribunal to strengthen enforcement of labour and social protections and eliminate the backlog of cases.
Backgrounders
Recent publications with analysis on jobs in BC.
Issue: Housing
Our analysis
We still have a severe shortage of homes in BC, with Indigenous, Black, racialized and immigrant communities facing sharper displacement and exclusion in the market than the population at large.
Yet cities continue to block apartments across most residential areas, suppressing new housing and driving up costs for both market and non-market homes. People continue to pay sky-high rents, and many cannot afford to form independent households, instead living with parents, roommates or even ex-partners.
The next provincial government must increase investment in non-market housing, tackle chronic municipal roadblocks to new housing of all kinds, and address historic and ongoing inequalities in the housing sector. Parties should commit to advancing provincial housing reforms and ensuring cities can’t undermine them, as we’ve seen with Vancouver’s deliberately restrictive multiplex rules, for example.
What we’d like to see
- Build at least 25,000 new non-market homes each year, including public, non-profit, and co-op housing, through increased provincial capital grants and direct public development.
- End apartment bans in BC’s highest-cost cities to tackle the housing shortage by allowing at least six-storey apartments without special approval wherever detached houses can be built, while strengthening tenant protections.
- Reform onerous municipal fees and remove other hidden barriers that block apartments, including minimum site-size requirements that force costly and time-consuming land assemblies.
- Increase provincial infrastructure funding to cities, conditional on ending apartment bans, recognizing that low-density sprawl drives up public infrastructure costs.
- Advance racial equity and justice in housing policy by investing in Indigenous-led and community-led housing and implementing housing strategies that respect and support Indigenous governance.
Backgrounders
Recent publications with analysis on BC’s housing crisis.
IN THE MEDIA
Vancouver Sun | BC’s big cities must do better to fix the housing crisis by Alex Hemingway. Read here. Long-form version also available here.
Future of Good | Should B.C.’s condo buyout be an opportunity to grow housing through non-profits? (Alex Hemingway) Read here.
Redeye | What the province needs to do to close BC’s racial housing gap (Véronique Sioufi). Listen here.
Jacobin | The Housing Crisis Isn’t Going Anywhere Until We Tackle Property Wealth Inequality. Interview with Alex Hemingway Go to the interview.
Issue: Deficits & Tax Fairness
Our analysis
BC has a revenue problem, not a spending problem.
The province is spending roughly the same share of our economy as it did a quarter-century ago, but revenues have fallen significantly. Deep personal and corporate tax cuts in the early 2000s, the elimination of the carbon tax and declining natural resources revenues have all contributed to eroding BC’s fiscal capacity.
To sustain and increase needed investments in public services and infrastructure, the next provincial government should rebuild BC’s revenue base through progressive taxation, widely shared economic growth and natural resource royalty reform that ensures the public and First Nations get their fair share. Asking high-income earners, wealthy landowners and corporations to contribute more, alongside fair contributions from a broader tax base, would help address deficits over time, reduce inequality and fund the public investments needed to build a stronger, more resilient economy.
What we’d like to see
- Raise tax rates on the top four provincial personal income tax brackets by 2%. Increase the next two personal income tax brackets by 0.5%, making contributions broad-based while still focusing on the well-off.
- Increase BC’s corporate income tax rate from 12% to 13%.
- Review and streamline corporate tax credits and subsidies to ensure they generate public benefit for BC, not just private profit for investors.
- Reform royalties on natural gas and critical minerals, and increase the rates for industrial water use so that the public and First Nations get their fair share.
- Tax high-value land wealth more fairly, raising rates on property values above $3 million, adding a new bracket above $7 million, and exploring the shift from a property tax to a land value tax.
- Convene a Citizens’ Assembly on fair tax reform where everyday British Columbians can deliberate on how best to pay for shared priorities with access to expert advice.
Backgrounders
Recent publications with analysis on BC’s deficit and tax reform.
IN THE MEDIA
CBC | BC Today – Provincial leaders’ tax proposals (with Iglika Ivanova). Listen here.
CBC | The Early Edition – The B.C. Conservatives pledge “no new taxes on British Columbians” during campaign stop (Iglika Ivanova). Listen here.
Jacobin | The Housing Crisis Isn’t Going Anywhere Until We Tackle Property Wealth Inequality. Interview with Alex Hemingway Go to the interview.
Vancouver Sun| As NDP and Conservatives go all in on supporting businesses, Greens promise to grow economy sustainably (Alex Hemingway). Read here.
Issue: Public safety
Our analysis
While the data doesn’t actually show a crime surge in BC, public safety is a top concern for many voters.
What many people experience as a growing threat to public safety are the visible consequences of deepening poverty, homelessness, the toxic drug crisis and untreated mental illness—all of which policing makes worse.
More cops and tougher sentences are not research-backed solutions. They mostly target low-level offences tied to poverty and substance use and fall hardest on Indigenous, Black and racialized communities who are already over-policed and under-protected by the state. Policing in Canada was built to control Indigenous peoples and “tough on crime” policies only build on that legacy. Instead of criminalizing poverty, the government should tackle its root causes by investing in the public services needed to end the mental health crisis, deep poverty and homelessness.
What we’d like to see
- Reduce police funding and redirect it to research-backed public safety measures such as housing, mental health care, income supports, food programs and voluntary, culturally safe recovery programs.
- Stop sending police as first responders to mental health crises and expand community-led response programs for mental health and wellness checks.
- End street sweeps and create enough emergency shelter, housing-first programs and supportive housing to ensure no one needs to spend the night on the street.
- Establish stable, long-term funding to scale up community-driven localized supportive services such as healing lodges, neighbourhood houses, friendship centres, libraries, safe supply and supervised consumption sites.
- Expand eligibility for and raise the rates on income, disability and seniors’ supports to above the poverty line and index them to inflation, with rental supplements that match real housing costs.
Backgrounders
Recent publications with analysis on issues affecting public safety and the perception of public safey in BC.
From the community
Pivot Legal Society | Community safety requires inclusion & accountability, not criminalizing poverty. View here.
Canadian Drug Policy Coalition | To End a Crisis: Vision for BC Drug Policy. View here.
Carnegie Housing Project | Vancouver needs 10,000 units that rent at the shelter rate of $500/month. View here.
Issue: DRIPA
Our analysis
Aligning BC law with Indigenous rights is not a threat to prosperity. It’s the path we must take for a more just and secure future.
The BC legislature unanimously passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) in 2019, committing to align its laws with the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)—a universal human rights framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of Indigenous Peoples worldwide. It addresses historical injustices, systemic discrimination and the ongoing marginalization of Indigenous communities.
Aligning BC law with Indigenous rights is not a threat to prosperity. It’s the path we must take for a more just and secure future. DRIPA offers a path to sustainable land stewardship, economic justice and climate resilience. Indigenous-led clean energy, housing and conservation initiatives are already creating jobs and restoring ecosystems. Fighting First Nations’ rights in court is a waste of public dollars and only prolongs conflict and uncertainty for communities and businesses alike. The next government should protect DRIPA, make faster progress on implementation, and resolve uncertainty through the return of land rather than going to court.
What we’d like to see
- Protect DRIPA: do not repeal, suspend or amend the Act.
- Recognize DRIPA as legally binding and stop fighting it in court.
- Bring BC laws into compliance with DRIPA and speed up implementation.
- No decisions without First Nations: uphold commitments to joint decision-making and First Nations’ right to free, prior and informed consent.
- Implement an independent oversight and accountability body to track and enforce progress on DRIPA.
Backgrounders
Recent publications with analysis on DRIPA.
From the community
BC Assembly of First Nations | Press release — Provincial Election: BCAFN calls on all parties to abandon divisive culture war politics and to present human rights commitments to the benefit of all British Columbians. View here.
First Nations Leadership Council | Press release — FNLC Celebrates the 19th Anniversary, Urges Full Implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Revitalize Reconciliation, Justice and True Partnership. View here.
in the media
Radio-Canada | Panorama — La DRIPA, une loi à rejeter ou un bouc émissaire? (monthly segment with Véronique Sioufi). Listen here.
Issue: Climate
Our analysis
The climate crisis is already being felt in communities across BC as we witness increasingly destructive wildfires, floods and extreme heat. These events represent a severe threat to the people and places we love. They are taking lives, driving up the price of food and home insurance and represent an ever-growing cost to the public treasury.
Despite climate change being primarily caused by burning fossil fuels, new LNG projects are still being proposed in BC. But research shows the business case for this type of energy is diminishing as large Asian markets switch to renewables, and the public will be burdened by the financial and environmental cost of delaying the transition to clean energy. The changing climate also endangers BC’s precarious, and often racialized, workers in sectors such as agriculture, food service, care work, construction and delivery services.
BC’s next government must re-establish a comprehensive and credible climate plan and ensure all new resource development projects align with it before approval. The government must ensure the public is not subsidizing the profits of largely foreign-owned LNG and mining corporations. By investing in BC’s clean energy potential, we can strengthen our economy, our communities and create good jobs.
What we’d like to see
- Invest in renewable energy projects, energy-efficiency building upgrades and a province-wide public transit expansion to reduce emissions, lower energy and transportation costs and create good green jobs.
- Strengthen BC’s climate commitments and ensure all new resource development projects align with them. Mandate a worker-led transition plan for affected resource sector workers and resource-dependent communities.
- End public subsidies for fossil fuel projects. Protect households and communities from shouldering the cost of new LNG development and mining by charging large industrial users the full cost of grid electricity and the expansion of transmission lines.
- Uphold the province’s commitments to Reconciliation and DRIPA, including free, prior and informed consent for all new projects that impact land use.
- Develop new WorkSafeBC regulations to protect workers from extreme temperatures, enforce existing standards and protect workers from employer retaliation for reporting unsafe conditions.
Backgrounders
Recent publications with analysis on BC’s climate crisis.
FROM THE COMMUNITY
BC Policy Solutions is a signatory to the BC Climate Emergency Campaign’s open letter, calling on the BC government to urgently enact 10 climate emergency actions. You can find that open letter and the full list of over 650 organizational signatories here.
Issue: Post-secondary education
Our analysis
BC’s public post-secondary system is in its worst funding crisis in history.
This crisis is decades in the making as public underfunding has been masked by increasing tuition rates and the exploitation of international students through exorbitant fees. We need to reverse course and aim for the standards set by better-performing countries comparable to Canada.
Post-secondary education is not a market good, meaning it shouldn’t be run like a business. It is public infrastructure that businesses, communities, the province and students alike benefit from—and we need to fund it that way. If the next government fails to invest, the consequences for BC will be a post-secondary system that is just for the rich, with less innovation, lower economic resilience, a shrinking tax base and deeper class divides.
What we’d like to see
- Restore public funding to 75% of operating costs over the short term, and set a timeline for the progressive introduction of low- or no-tuition education.
- Protect the 2% cap on domestic tuition, extend it to international students and close the loopholes institutions use to get around the cap.
- Replace inefficient corporate-style governance with localized community-driven models and collaboration across institutions.
- Reverse the shift to insecure, contract academic work and transition to permanent, full-time staff protected by collective agreements, bargain in good faith and end the contracting out of essential campus services.
- Fully fund the commitments of the Declaration Act Action Plan and build Indigenous principles (Respect, Responsibility, Reciprocity, Relevance) into how institutions are run and international students are received.
Backgrounders
Recent publications with analysis on BC’s public post-secondary education crisis.
Issue: AI
Our analysis
AI is being sold to us as an inevitable technological innovation, but it’s important for our governments to recognize it is also a political project—one that funnels wealth and skills from workers to a handful of tech giants.
Left unregulated, it’s being used to surveil workers, migrants and racialized communities and make high-stakes decisions about people’s lives without transparency. It also consumes enormous amounts of our limited energy and water supply in the process.
The EU has introduced enforceable AI regulations and provinces like Quebec are following suit. The next government must quickly enact strong privacy and worker protections, and strong transparency and accountability standards. But ultimately we want to see the province resist getting caught up in the AI bubble and instead put our public funds towards long term sustainable growth that will benefit BC. Investments in transit, child care, health care and housing boost incomes and productivity for workers and businesses alike. Betting on speculative AI won’t.
Backgrounders
Recent publications with analysis on AI.
What we’d like to see
- Introduce strong and comprehensive AI regulations modelled after the EU standard: data privacy protections, copyright infringement regulations, transparency requirements and profit-scaled fines.
- Protect workers from automated surveillance and management, including AI use in disciplining, hiring, and firing.
- Halt all algorithmic decision-making in public and social services (including policing and sentencing) until enforceable transparency, equity impact, and accountability mechanisms are in place.
- Treat digital infrastructures as public utilities, including publicly-owned cables, data centres and software services.
- Redirect funding away from speculative AI partnerships between government and private companies toward investments in the people that grow the economy: in education, health, housing and social services.
in the media
CBC | Radio West — Researchers say it is time Canada starts creating laws to protect AI users. Listen.
Radio-Canada | Panorama — Comment réglementer l’IA au Canada et en C.-B.? (monthly segment with Véronique Sioufi).
Listen here.
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